Friday, March 29, 2013

Starting today all backers have access to the draft of MAJUS prior to final layout with art. This is provided as a thank you to all supporters, and so that you can get right into enjoying the game before the final version is finished. Current backers please check today's update (for backers only) with download instructions. Future backers, once pledged, can read Update 2 from the Kickstarter page to find instructions.

Have a great weekend!

Whether you've pledged $1.00 or $100.00, here's your chance to get the magic of MAJUS started right away. Go make a pledge at the Kickstarter page and checkout Update #2 for details on how to get your copy of the art-free draft version of the game.

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

There have been a few questions floating around about
Goblinoid Games’ new Pacesetter System game, MAJUS. Since I’m extremely
well-qualified to answer them and because playing coy doesn’t help the game get
funded, I’ve put together this handy primer on what to expect while you’re
expecting MAJUS to fund. Hopefully, it’ll also help those of you currently on
the fence to make the plunge and throw
some money at the project to get us across the finish line.

What’s the
Kickstarter for?

Primarily, the Kickstarter campaign is to raise money to pay
for the art and final layout of the book. The rules are 100% written and play tested,
so there’s no waiting on the actual game itself to be completed. The art for
MAJUS is being done by Mark Allen, whose work appears in numerous other gaming
supplements (including Realms
of Crawling Chaos by Goblinoid Games).
You can check out his website here if
you’re unacquainted with Mark’s work.

What time period is
MAJUS set in?

By default, MAJUS is set in the modern world, but the CM is
not limited to the 21st century when creating the campaign. Although
MAJUS is billed as a “magic noir” game, implying it takes place during the
1940s and 1950s, the heyday of film noir, it’d be more accurate to call it a “neo-noir”
setting. However, since “neo-noir” is less recognizable than “noir” amongst the
general population, I billed the game as “magic noir.” Also, you could roughly
translate “magic noir” as “black magic,” which isn’t a bad way to sell an urban
fantasy RPG featuring sorcerers with questionable moral compasses.

Despite the modern setting, there’s nothing preventing you
from running MAJUS in any time period of your liking. The Old Game between Maji
has been ongoing since the days of ancient Sumeria and the game rules contain
mechanics for an array of skills and weapons ranging from the archaic to the
futuristic. Additionally, powerful Maji are able to project themselves
backwards in time to previous incarnations, allowing for both one-off and
ongoing adventures in distant epochs. If you want to rub shoulders with Da
Vinci or fight Nazi magicians in the ruins of WWII Berlin, MAJUS allows you to
do so.

MAJUS is a game about
magicians, so how does magic work?

I had a heck of a good time researching “real world” magic
systems and school when writing MAJUS. Borders Books and Music was shutting its
doors during the design period and I helped clear out my local store’s New Age
and Occult section of reference material.

In MAJUS, there are a number of magical paths known as “adits”
and each is a three-tiered system of spells. At the lowest level, minor effects
are possible, but with study, greater and more impressive results occur. There
are twelve adits to choose from in MAJUS, ranging from “animagic” (the power to
influence animals via mystical means) to “weather control,” with adits such as “blessing,”
“hexing,” “glamour,” “counterspelling,” “summoning” and “warding” in between.

Magic is powerful, but low-key in MAJUS, and you won’t find
a lot of fireballs or flying Maji around. Spell casting takes a bit of time,
requires props and tools, and you’ll find variables like knowing your target’s
true name or possessing something important to him helps the spell casting
process. However, Maji are able to “hang” spells, allowing them to begin the
mystical process prior to events that might benefit from magical assistance and
then complete the spell when needed to produce nearly instantaneous results.
The number of hanging spells a Maji can have ready at one time is dependent on
his level of magical training and experience.

Besides the magical adits, Maji also walk strange paths,
some of which seem preordained. A Maji can tap into the power of Synchronicity,
enabling the magician to be at the right place at the right time or pick up
hints the magical Skein might be strewing in the Maji’s path.

Since a player can cherry-pick which adits his PC knows,
this allows for the creation of nearly any type of magician. If you want to
play a sorcerer steeped in the Celtic druidic tradition, a New Age earth mother
with potent healing (and hexing) powers, or a Hermitic magician well-versed in
summoning angels and devils to do his bidding, you can build such a character
in MAJUS.

That all you got?

Nope. Since the line between magic and psychic phenomenon is
blurry (and some would argue non-existent), MAJUS contains rules for psychic
talents and most Maji have one or two of them as well. These “paranormal
talents” (PTs) cover a lot of ground and include aura reading, distance viewing,
dowsing, dream walking, mesmerism, psychometry, and pyrokinesis, just to name a
few. All total, there are thirteen different PTs to choose from, some of which
will be familiar to those acquainted with other Pacesetter games, while others
a brand new.

How are Maji
organized?

In general, most Maji associate themselves with like-minded
individuals and these groups are known as “towers” after the traditional
sanctums of magicians. Towers vary in size from a half-dozen magicians to a few
hundred, based on their goals, training, and ability to get along. MAJUS includes
nine suggested towers, some of which are suitable for PC membership, while
others are out-and-out “bad guys.” The nine towers included in MAJUS are:

Abraxas: A group of magical families who enhance
their power by consuming demons and other supernatural entities.

The Circle of Saturn: Aging Maji who are
searching for immortality—by any means necessary.

Prima Materia: Alchemists who seek not to change
lead into gold, but perfect their mortal bodies into near-indestructible
killing machines.

The Projecteers: Maji who walk the halls of
government, using military funding to engage in their own private wars to win
the Old Game.

The Quiet: Magical police (or are they
assassins?) working for the enigmatic Veiled Masters who might be pulling all
the strings in the Mehen.

Schwarze Sonne: A tower of Maji birthed in Nazi
Germany that still has access to the strange occult experiments enacted during
that time.

Sodality of Thoth Eternal: Maji on an archeological
quest that travels the world, collecting artifacts and grimoires.

The Thessalians: Witches with the power to draw
down the moon and harness its energies against their enemies.

The Witchfinders: Outlaw bikers who have no
interest in the Old Game and serve as a (relatively) safe haven for those of
similar thinking.

In addition to the towers, there’s a new breed of Maji in
the Old Game, one that came out of the Age of Aquarius and the increased interest
in magic during the 1960s. Known as “erratics,” these Maji are independent
agents who might be the key to winning control of the Skein or disposable pawns
easily manipulated by the towers.

You’ve got Maji, but
urban fantasy is rife with other supernatural creatures. Any in MAJUS?

A dozen of them, not counting rules for creating your own
astral entities like angels, nature spirits, devils, and demons. As with the
magic of MAJUS, I drew on real world folklore to populate the supernatural
ecological niches of the game, but gave each a different twist. From magic viruses
that turn the infected in bloodthirsty maniacs, to indestructible ogres created
by twisted French nobles, to psychic vampires, to aquatic bogeymen who keep the
souls of drowned victims in bottles, there’s a lot of nastiness in the shadows
of MAJUS. You might never look at a neon “LIVE NUDE GIRLS” sign the same.

I’m not that familiar
with the other Pacesetter games. How compatible is MAJUS with other games?

The good news is that MAJUS is a complete game and you don’t
need the other Pacesetter games available from Goblinoid to play. Hopefully,
once you read the rules, you’ll use them as written and launch a MAJUS campaign
with the rulebook alone. Plus, as an Action Table system game, MAJUS is fully compatible
with TIMEMASTER and ROTWORLD, allowing you to throw in magic-wielding foes or
new monsters in those game campaigns.

However, even if you decide not to use the Action Table
system, the MAJUS setting is detailed enough (but not overly detailed) to
easily be used with other RPGs. You can adapt the background material, towers,
default setting, and other aspects of the game to build an exciting campaign
using your rule system of choice. Plus, MAJUS features a short primer on “noir”
campaigns, which is extremely helpful to the novice game master looking to
incorporate those elements into other games.

Hopefully this clears up some of the questions surrounding
MAJUS and gets you all excited to play. If so, please consider helping fund the
game by visiting
the Kickstarter page and pledging. If you have further questions, feel free
to ask them hear or comment over at the Kickstarter page. Either Dan Proctor or
I will address them whenever possible.

So, before you decide to plunk down your hard-earned
scratch, you might justifiably ask, “What is MAJUS?” I’m here to help.

MAJUS is an urban fantasy/film noir RPG that casts the
players in the roles of sorcerers descended from the Sumerian priest-kings of
antiquity. From the dawn of time, these magicians, known as Maji, have been
embroiled in a struggle called the Mehen. The goal of this millennia-long
conflict is to control the mysterious Skein and thereby dominate the sorcerous
underworld. Standing in the way of the players’ victory are numerous cabals of
rival Maji, strange cultists, and supernatural entities that might not be quite
what folklore makes them out to be. Expect pitched gun battles amidst ancient
Mayan ruins, seedy dealings with South African freighter captains down at the
docks, double-crosses by trusted friends, and, of course, Nazis.

One of the strengths of MAJUS is that there is no concrete
setting or metaplot, and the CM (Cabal Master) is encouraged to utilize the
various elements of the game to create a campaign that best suits his or her
and the players’ expectations and desires. With a copy of MAJUS in hand, any
and all of the following is possible:

* Battle the evil of the Abraxas, a cabal of demonphages endeavoring
to consume the power of the Skein to enhance their own brand of fell magic.

* Seek out ancient, forgotten sites of power known as
“labyrinths” and defeat the “minotaurs” that guard them.

* Become embroiled in the schemes of the Projecteers, who
plot deep in the halls of government, augmented by black budget funding.

* Search for immortality with the Circle of Saturn—or stop
them from achieving their eternal aims.

* Ride with the Witchfinders, an outlaw motorcycle club
determined to retain their neutrality in the Mehen.

* Double-cross the Sodality of Thoth Eternal to steal John
Dee’s Other Mirror.

* Curse your enemies with a well-placed shot from the Hex
Rifle.

* Avoid getting lost in the Slumber and the House of
Infinite Rooms.

From two-fisted Saturday afternoon serials a la Indiana Jones to Lovecraftian
horror, MAJUS fits a number of play styles. The Skein, the central goal of the
Mehen, can be custom tailored to each CM’s desire and a number of different
options are provided to help inspire campaign creation. Even the origins of the
Maji and the Veiled Masters who might be pulling their strings, are left open
to interpretation, giving the game master a wide variety of choices when
constructing adventures. You’ll find no metaplot in MAJUS!

MAJUS owes a debt of gratitude to a number of literary, film,
and musical sources. If you’re a fan of Hellblazer,
Cast a Deadly Spell, Clive Barker, Millennium, Harry Dresden, Carnacki the
Ghost Finder, The Maltese Falcon and The Big Sleep, Blue Oyster Cult and
other eclectic entertainments, you’ll find some familiar territory in the game.

MAJUS was a hell of a trip to write and I hope you have at
least half as much fun playing the game as I did writing it. I took a long,
scenic drive through Bat Country when researching the game and I think that
mental journey pays off in the originality of MAJUS. I’m very excited to see
this game come to fruition. It’s complete and ready to roll, and just needs the
Kickstarter for layout and to pay for the awesome artwork of Mark Allen, who I
believe is tackling the project from cover to cover.

If you’re a fan of my work, the Action Table System Games
(TIMEMASTER, ROTWORLD, and others), and/or Goblinoid Games’ excellent products,
please consider kicking some bucks into the can and make MAJUS happen!

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Once upon a time, a company released a game that was unlike
other games. It was complex, sometimes convoluted, but drew inspiration from
novels and movies that inspired and excited generations of youngsters with
dreams of experiencing those tales firsthand. The game delivered that in
spades. But after awhile, the company decided that they might increase the
popularity of the game by changing it, making it so it was no longer the unique,
challenging game it was, but instead an poor imitation other popular pastimes
they saw themselves competing with. They revamped the game, in many cases
making it nearly unrecognizable from the one that the original players enjoyed.
With those changes, the players who loved the original version, those who
enjoyed its challenges and complexities, and the thinking those challenges
required, drifted away. But a small group decided that, even though the game
the loved was dead, there was no reason to stop playing it. Using a legal
loophole, they recreated the original game and found that there were others of
the same mind who jumped at the chance to play it once again. A small, but
vibrant, community resulted, one that’s still growing and regularly revisiting
the old game they have a fond affection for.

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, that story sounds
pretty familiar, but here’s the rub: The company and game I’m referring to isn’t
WotC and D&D, but Sony Online Entertainment and Star Wars
Galaxies.

Those of you who follow me on Goggle+ or talked with me at
Gary Con know I’m on a Star Wars kick right now, spurred on by the fact my
oldest nephew is just discovering the Star Wars universe for the first time.
His four year-old excitement is pretty contagious and I’ve found myself looking
back on a franchise that, like many forty-somethings, I have a love/hate
relationship with. I still have a fondness for the classic films despite the
disappointments I’ve experience in the last two decades with Star Wars. I imprinted early on Han Solo
and never quite outgrew my love for scoundrels with hearts of gold. So when the
Star
War Galaxies MMO went live on June 26, 2003, I was there for the
launch, with dreams of smuggling and blasting Stormtroopers. This was during my
dry period of roleplaying, the era when I had almost completely fallen away
from the hobby, but still enjoyed the vicarious experience of playing someone
else in an imaginary world. I met a lot of good people playing SWG, some of whom became a second family
who’d occasionally meet at the Slaughtered
Lamb Pub in Manhattan to share drinks, swap stories, and provide real-life camaraderie
and support.

"I think this blaster's not shooting straight."

I played SWG
through two revisions of the original game. The first was a minor series of
fixes called the “Combat Upgrade” which corrected a few exploits. The second
was the infamous “New Game Experience” which completely altered the game and
removed what I and others considered its strongest elements to appease those
players that wanted a simpler, more Jedi-heavy experience. The NGE basically
turned the game into a poorly enacted, first-person shooter and implemented
level-based class advancement. Previously, a player could swap professions
without penalty, allowing them to master different occupations and, when they
wanted to try something different, could do so. The NGE locked you into a profession
and if you wanted to change professions and thereby your game experience, you
had to create a new character from scratch. It also removed a lot of the “fiddly
bits” that required planning, study, and creativity to master.

Sony Online Entertainment finally pulled the plug on SWG on
December 25, 2011, a causality of dwindling numbers and, quite frankly, poor
management. After all, how bad do you have to mismanage something to ruin Star
Wars, one of the best known brands in the history of popular entertainment?
(That’s a rhetorical question, folks. I know it can be done.)

Back when I was still playing, I heard rumors of a fan-based
initiative dedicated to creating an emulator that allowed those who loved the
pre-NGE version of the game to play the original game on private servers. At
that time, I figured such a project had a wampa’s chance on Tatooine of surviving.
Sony Online Entertainment or Lucasfilm was bound to come down on these “pirate”
servers like an AT-AT on a crashed snowspeeder. But recently, with my interest
in things Star Wars waxing, I decided to see if anything ever became of those
projects.

I was delighted to find that, while there had been a few
false starts by a number of different groups, at least two have come to
fruition. There’s the SWGEmu,
which is the classic, pre-CU version of the game (the one I loved the most) and
Project SWG, whose aim is to allow
those who enjoyed the NGE to continue to do so after the game closed. Both are
quite a ways down the road to resurrecting the game and players can revisit the
version they loved with varying degrees of success. Intrigued by this, I did a
little digging into why these emulators are still up and running and haven’t
been taken down by SOE or Lucasfilm. What I discovered seems very familiar.

The emulator projects survive using a legal means to allow
those who love the game to play their own, purchased versions of SWG on a private
server. From
what I understand (and correct me if I’m wrong and you know better), MMOs
operate sort of as a web-browser. The copy of the game you buy contains all the
software, graphics, commands, etc. needed to play the game. When you connect to
a server using your copy, the server merely parses the commands you send when
playing the game using server-side programming to interpret and respond to your
actions.

What the emulators do is reconstruct the server-side code
from scratch, meaning its non-proprietary and therefore doesn’t impinge on the
intellectual property of SOE. This code is written by the fans working on the
project for free, and the servers and other miscellaneous expenses are covered
by donations, ensuring the emulators aren’t a profit-making endeavor. It’s
simply fans recreating the means to play the game they love from the ground up
and treading carefully to not step across any legal boundaries. That’s
something that sound awfully damned familiar!

The only caveat is that you must own a copy of SWG to play.
Because of the possibility of legal prosecution if that gray area suddenly
turns black with pirated software, the emulators are very heavy-handed on
cracking down on people playing with illicit copies of the game. Any version
other than the trial will get you going. Just install it and visit one of the
links above for the launcher to update you installed copy to work with the
emulators. The upside is that you can pick up a copy of SWG pretty cheap on eBay these day, since the “official” severs are
all closed.

The emulators are still working out some bugs, but I’ve been
playing on SWEmu for the last two days and only encountered one glitched
mission, which was easily deleted and replaced. Unfortunately, the game is
still lacking the space expansion, “Jump to Lightspeed,” as the goal is to get
the basic, ground-based game running bug-free before the emulators make the
next step. There’s still plenty to do on the ground though.

I’ve often said that gamers are predominately a creative and
intelligent breed, and it’s nice to see that this inclination extends beyond
those of us who throw dice on a tabletop. I fully support these hard-working
fans who volunteer their time and talent to allow other fans a means to revisit
a game they love. Since I’m no programmer, I figured I use my modicum of fame
and influence to help spread the word.

If you remember the good old days of SWG and still have your disks stashed somewhere, I implore you to
give the emulators a try, no matter what flavor you enjoyed. SWGEmu is my emulator of
choice and you can find me on the Basilisk server. Just look for “Maximillian
Haze” hanging out in the cantina on Mos Eisley, recovering from battle fatigue
or wandering the desert, skinning womp rats. Send me /tell and say “Hi!” I’m always
looking for people to group up with (those womp rats are kicking my ass!).

And, as a somewhat private aside, if you’re reading this and
you’re a former member of the Coalition of Lost Smugglers, drop me an email at
the addy listed over there to the right. This is LT Zweigg reporting in. I miss
you guys. The first batch of Neutron Pixie’s on me.

Monday, March 18, 2013

Despite American Airlines' best efforts, I escaped successfully back to the East Coast. Actually, "escape" is the wrong word for leaving a great time with good folks in Lake Geneva. There were plenty of escapades (Gamma World, a quest, the slaying incapacitating of Tim Kask's Jeep), some of which are destined to become legends in the memories of those who witnessed and/or survived them.

And just when I thought the con couldn't be any better, this arrived for me at the front desk of the hotel:

It should be in stores in 2-3 weeks depending on the distribution chain. As the warning sign at the amusement park says, "You Will Get Wet on this Ride!"

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

If the gods of travel continue to favor me, at this time tomorrow I'll be nestled in the loving bosom of "The Lodge at Geneva Ridge" for Gary Con V. This is the last stop on this leg of the convention tour and one of the few cons I look forward to with boyish glee. Last year was my first trip to Gary Con and it truly felt like coming home.

I've got a pretty full schedule for the weekend and, if you're in any of the following events, you'll be certain to see me:

Wednesday Night (tentative)

Open and informal game of Gamma World (2nd Edition): somewhere, sometime. Look for the group of players giggling and groaning, and a 2nd edition Gamma World Referee Screen propped up on a table.

Thursday

4 PM--Aliens: The Reactor: I finally fulfill my promise to let Allan Grohe eat a few of my Colonial Marines on his excellent game board. I've never played before, but xenomorphs give me the willies, so I expect to have a terrifyingly good time.

8 PM--In the Court of Chaos (DCC RPG run by me): A playtest of yet another upcoming Dungeon Crawl Classics adventure I penned. It's a tad different from your standard dungeon fare and I'm eager to see what happens in actual play.

Friday

8 AM--The Curse of the Weaver Queen: I do my best to keep Tim Kask from racking up another TPK for a few hours. I give us a 25% chance of making it out alive. It'd be 50% if it wasn't 8 o'clock in the morning.

2 PM--Return to Ram's Horn Castle (OD&D with Michael Mornard): You can't go to Lake Geneva and not play OD&D, especially with the likes of Mike Mornard. I have no idea what we'll face, but it should be a hell of an experience.

8 PM--Frozen in Time(DCC RPG run by me): One of my new favorites for DCC, I channel my inner Jim Ward on this one. This will be a zero-level funnel, which is always a blast no matter what adventure you're running.

Saturday

10 AM--The Croaking Fane (DCC RPG run by me): A sneak-peak at the forthcoming adventure from Goodman Games. I've run this a couple of times now and have scared the heck out of a few players doing so. Hwah-hah-hah!

4 PM--A Night on the Town(DCC RPG run by me): The adventure that's become my preferred way to end my judging duties at a convention, ANotT throws the PCs on to the street of Oolvanvar and lets them pick their own destination in search of sanctuary on the night the Dead walk the streets. Will they make the same choice the others have or break new ground?

I'll also have my Shiverwhen stuff with me if the opportunity and desire is there for people to playtest my new game. Talk to me if you want to run through "The Perils of the Book Trade" intro adventure.

As always, if you see me, please stop me and say "Hi!" I'm always willing to sign a book or take a few moments to talk about what's coming down the line or gaming in general. Gygax Magazine #1 should be available at the con and I'll gleefully deface your copy if you'd like me to.

To those attending, I'll see you soon. Everyone else have a great weekend!

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

I'm back from CincyCon and getting caught up on projects and prepping for Gary Con (in just nine days!). While in Ohio, I had the opportunity to sit down alongside Tim Kask and participate in an interview with Grognard Games for their YouTube channel. You can see the results below. WARNING: contains gratuitous self-promotion!

Who's to Blame

Despite having never been a professional adventurer, Michael Curtis has nonetheless deciphered cryptic writings, handled ancient maps and texts, ridden both a camel and an elephant, fallen off a mountain, participated in a mystical rite, and discovered the resting places of lost treasures. He can be contacted at poleandrope @ gmaildotcom